Long Runs - Get out the door!

Ever felt like you just can't get out the door for a long run?  Think about the workout the night before and you can't sleep?  I have.  I was looking for company to make sure I'm not alone.  For example, this is happening tomorrow and I'm very aware of it.  That's going to make for one HOT long run.

For myself, I've found that if I actually get out of bed then the long run will get done.  The problem is that I set my alarm for very early (because it's hot) and then just turn off the alarm and go back to bed instead of, you know, doing any work.  This has been a particularly rough stretch because I used to do long runs on Monday mornings, then stay at work late becuase it's the one night of the week the office is open late.  I can no longer employ this strategy because I have a 9am meeting on Mondays now.  (My attitude about this meeting doesn't help one bit.)

The plan for tomorrow morning is that I'm just getting up at 7am and seeing what happens.  Helpfully I have to meet a friend at 11:30 for lunch (Happy Birthday to me!) so the morning is pretty much the only chunk of time I have for this.  If I wimp out from the heat, I will go to the gym and do a long workout. 

Strategies I've found to (sometimes) be helpful for actually getting long runs done:

• Have a backup plan like a long indoor track workout.  Sometimes it rains.
• Do it on a weekday before work - this seems to be the only way I can reliably drag my ass out of bed at 5am.
• Do it with friends.  Most of my friends are faster than me.  Most everyone is faster than me.  Sometimes I can convince Running Beth that a slower long run would be fun.
• Rewards - Tomorrow my reward will be lunch with Qat Lady.